Jade's New Friend
Jade’s New Friend
It had been 19 hours. It had been 19 hours since she’d seen Onyx move, and while cats were jokingly known (on the internet, at least) for their laziness, she hadn’t anticipated this. It was breathing, of that Jade was sure. For some reason, she felt afraid to approach it, like she was invading, even though technically Onyx who had invaded and was now sleeping on Jade’s bed. Had been sleeping on Jade’s bed for 19 hours.
The cat had shown up wearing a collar with onyx and jade braided into it. It was curious, Jade felt. She had just been feeling lonely and hoping for someone to show up and change her life. She’d been thinking more along the lines of a girl, but she wasn’t going to turn away a cat. Especially one that had deposited itself on her doorstep, yowling insistently until the door was opened. Jade didn’t really go in for coincidence. Was the universe ever so lazy? And when she grabbed the tagless collar and saw it was made of gold thread with onyx and jade… well, the name seemed obvious. But only because Jade was already taken.
Jade sighed and studied the cat. The sun had risen and set on black fur. Like the night, the cat’s breaths seemed slow and the time in between each felt long, unbearably long.
She wondered: Did Reddit have answers? Jade sat at her desk and started typing, as quietly as she could to avoid disturbing Onyx. A hysterical little giggle bubbled out of her mouth when she realized why she was being quiet.
Reddit, it turned out, had very limited answers about caring for a cat. Most of it was photos of cats being impossibly silly, videos of cats knocking things off of counters, and conspiracy theories that cats were an alien race who had come to take over Earth after their home planet had been destroyed, but then decided they preferred to be coddled by the humans they had meant to kill off.
The internet, Jade reminded herself, was crazy.
She stood over Onyx and stared hard. Feeling crazy, she blew the tiniest stream of air she could at the cat. Its ear twitched, but otherwise it didn’t seem to notice. It sure didn’t crack an eye or sit up. Not even the tiniest flick of the tail. Just one little flicker of movement from the ear, and that was it.
Another hour passed. Jade supposed she should probably hunt down some food to give the thing. Maybe that’s why it was sleeping so much. It was aware, somehow, that there was nothing consumable in Jade’s apartment.
Jade started combing through the back of her cupboards. She had recently decided to become a vegetarian, but also hadn’t had the heart to throw away the meat she had already bought. It was already dead, throwing it away would just negate that sacrifice.
There, in the back: Cans of tuna. Maybe it was a sign—the universe knew it was going to send her a cat, and so unknowingly, she had kept tuna ready for it.
She cracked open the can, slopping it into a bowl. Sure the sound and smell would have woken Onyx, she peeked around the corner at it.
Still sleeping. Huh.
Jade waved the bowl under Onyx’s nose. Nothing.
Another hour and still, the cat slept. The entire apartment smelled of tuna now, and Jade felt very stupid. Could she cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until the cat woke up?
Had it died without her noticing? Had she and her apartment just been a convenient and roomy coffin? Jade hyperventilated. She didn’t know what to do about a dead animal. Who do you call to get a dead cat—a cat she wasn’t supposed to have in the first place because the apartment didn’t allow pets, dammit—out of the apartment? Was she going to have to touch it?
“Would you calm down?”
Jade heard the voice in her head. For a second she wondered if she had thought it without realizing it. Was that possible? Maybe she had finally cracked. But then there was fur against her leg, and the cat was circling between her feet, staring up at her. It was meowing, but in her head she heard more words from an unknown voice.
“I was tired. You try traveling faster than the speed of light through six portals and times leaps, and then maybe you’ll sleep for twenty-one—what is it you call them?—hours.”
Jade gaped at the cat.
“Where are you from,” she asked finally, though she spared some thought to wondering why she was responding at all. Not for nothing had her mother taught her some manners.
“You wouldn’t know it,” it said slyly. It shrugged.
No, it didn’t, because cats don’t shrug, Jade told herself. Out loud though: “Try me, I studied astron—no, wait, I’m losing my mind, you’re a cat and I have absolutely cracked. Who do I call for this? Is this what 911 is for?”
It hopped up onto the counter and pressed both its paws to the front of her face. Before anything else, Jade found herself worried that paws had dirty kitty litter on them. The cat seemed to hear that thought and glared. Jade was sure this time. The cat was glaring.
“I was sent to you.”
“Why?” She asked. She still couldn’t believe that she was talking, out loud, to a cat and imagining that it would respond.
“You asked for an adventure, my overseers heard it. Don’t take it back now,” Onyx responded. It sounded disapproving. It was still squinting angrily at her, but there was a shade of judgment now. That sounded about right, anyone should be judging her right about now for all of this.
“Your overseers?”
Could cats roll their eyes? Jade was pretty sure Onyx had just rolled her eyes at her.
“Listen, we’ve got work to do.”
“What do you mean?” Jade did not shriek. She absolutely did not shriek. She would insist on that until her dying day.
“Can I have that food now?” Onyx asked instead.
Numbly, Jade got the tuna back out of the fridge, took off the plastic wrap, and set it down on the counter. She watched as Onyx began to eat.
“Have you ever seen a meteor hit the ground?” Onyx asked eventually.
“No,” Jade said slowly.
“Well, a few will strike in a remote forest in Nova Scotia in three days. We’ll start driving tomorrow.”
Jade didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure she wanted to see meteors strike.
“Get some sleep, you stayed up all night watching me sleep. Weirdo.”
Suddenly feeling exhausted--she had just watched Onyx sleep for 21 hours--Jade dragged herself to bed. They could argue about Nova Scotia in the morning.
Prompt
You can use this prompt to write your own story, draw something, sing a song, whatever you like! I will (probably) use it for the next story!
A middle-aged woman discovers a ghost.
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Valorie